Abruptly, a life ends, another shatters

A teen works to make amends for a moment of deadly distraction

Updated 8:33 am, Saturday, February 16, 2013

Kate McGuire, left, with attorney Pamela Nichols on Feb. 15, 2013, in Albany, N.Y., tells of her involvement in an accident that was caused by driving while distracted. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Kate McGuire, left, with attorney Pamela Nichols on Feb. 15, 2013, in Albany, N.Y., tells of her involvement in an accident that was caused by driving while distracted. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Photo: SKIP DICKSTEIN

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Kate McGuire is shown on Feb. 15, 2013, in Albany, N.Y., telling of her involvement in an accident that was caused by driving while distracted. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Kate McGuire is shown on Feb. 15, 2013, in Albany, N.Y., telling of her involvement in an accident that was caused by driving while distracted. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Photo: SKIP DICKSTEIN

Image 3 of 4

Kate McGuire, left, with attorney Pamela Nichols ono Feb. 15, 2013, in Albany, N.Y., tells of her involvement in an accident that was caused by driving while distracted. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Kate McGuire, left, with attorney Pamela Nichols ono Feb. 15, 2013, in Albany, N.Y., tells of her involvement in an accident that was caused by driving while distracted. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Photo: SKIP DICKSTEIN

Image 4 of 4

Kate McGuire, left, with attorney Pamela Nichols on Feb. 15, 2013 in Albany, N.Y. , tells of her involvement in an accident that was caused by driving while distracted. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Kate McGuire, left, with attorney Pamela Nichols on Feb. 15, 2013 in Albany, N.Y. , tells of her involvement in an accident that was caused by driving while distracted. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Photo: SKIP DICKSTEIN

Abruptly, a life ends, another shatters

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Kate McGuire had just finished a clarinet lesson. Her parents were at choir practice so she knew she had to get her own dinner. She reached over to her car's GPS to program it to find a McDonald's.

Her eyes and her car drifted off the road — and in that split second, she went from being a typical teen to a killer.

She did not see that Howard Stein had pulled over to secure something in the back of his pickup truck. As McGuire crashed into the truck and her airbag deployed, she did not realize she had hit someone. Nervous and afraid to confront the driver, she got out. And there was Stein, crushed between her car and the pickup, mortally injured.

That was April 7, 2011, in Acton, Mass.

Today, McGuire is a sophomore studying computer science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. And when not studying, she works with local attorney Pamela Nichols to talk about the dangers of distracted driving. She also appears in a new three-minute video called "Just a Few Seconds" that is being shown across the country. In it, she tells her story, alternating with Emily Stein, Howard's daughter, who was six months pregnant with his first grandchild when he died.

"I didn't see the accident at all. I drifted into the breakdown lane and rear-ended a truck that was there," McGuire said. "I didn't want to see the driver immediately. I was scared. I went around behind the truck. Howard Stein was on the ground there. He was still alive at that time but was in bad shape. I was told he wasn't going to make it."

More Information

Campaign details

What: End Distracted Driving: A campaign to end multitasking behind the wheel.

Now 19, McGuire, of Groton, Mass., takes responsibility for her actions. Devastated afterward, she could not sleep without medication and thought about suicide.

"I got a letter from the family of the man that died," she said. "They asked me to help other teens not to make the same mistake I did."

She also sent the Steins a letter, apologizing for her actions.

Charged with vehicular homicide by negligence, McGuire was given pretrial probation for five years. The charge will be dismissed if she refrains from driving, performs 100 hours of community service each year and gives at least seven talks a year.

While researching ways she could speak about what she had done, she discovered the Casey Feldman Foundation, founded by the family of a girl who died as a result of multitasking behind the wheel.

McGuire sent an email to Joel Feldman, Casey's father, who had launched the End Distracted Driving campaign. An hour later, he called her.

"When she found out the driver who killed my daughter never apologized, she apologized for him," Feldman said. "She is clearly a very compassionate person. She is wonderful, and that's why I wanted to film her."

Any driver could have made the same mistake, he said. "To me, she is doing an incredible job and making kids think about making good choices."

Feldman matched McGuire with Nichols, an attorney at the Albany firm O'Connell and Aronowitz. Nichols attended a presentation last year in Arizona and volunteered to speak on the results of distracted driving she has seen as a personal injury attorney.

The two have paired up for presentations and are seeking other chances to speak to students.

"Everyone expects they are going to hear 'Don't drive and text' or 'Don't talk on your phone,' " Nichols said. "All of the activities in the car that are legal are just as dangerous."

Nichols said McGuire's personal story gets through to audiences.

"She is amazing and so brave and a wonderful speaker," she said. "The minute they realized she was their age, that it happened to her, she was a great kid and a great student, you could hear a pin drop. I think that is the way Kate can really make a difference."

Nichols said she, herself, was once among the most distracted drivers, until her children spoke up.

"I had two young children say 'Mom, could you please stop?' " she said. "I talked on the phone, I texted, I emailed, I ate, I drank. Driving really became a secondary task."

The End Distracted Driving campaign, which now features McGuire's video, has made presentations in 34 states using more than 1,000 volunteers.

"It's definitely hard to watch the video, seeing (Emily Stein's) side of the story," McGuire said. "I didn't make it through the video the first time I tried to watch it but I am definitely glad it's out there and I am definitely glad it's working."

McGuire said she is nervous in other people's cars.

"It's hard for me not to pay attention to what they are doing," she said. "I make them put the cellphone down, not play with the radio, because I know the danger it puts other people in."

When her probation is done, she expects her public speaking won't end.

"I don't feel like I can ever make amends for what I did." she said. "It's my way of preventing the same thing from happening and possibly saving someone else's life out there."